Towards the Establishment of an African Cyber-Army
ABSTRACT
Cybersecurity has become a critical element of the national security of countries. A cyber-army is a group of soldiers highly skilled in information technology with cyber skills. Cyber-armies are the unseen military cyber power which countries should employ to maintain national cybersecurity. A cyber-army has the ability to launch cyberattacks and collect information in order to gain a strategic military advantage. In this paper, selected cyber-armies are compared. The focus is on the establishment of an African Cyber-Army to defend and protect cyber sovereignty. An African Cyber-Army has to serve nations whose citizens often have low levels of cybersecurity awareness in conjunction with rapidly growing rates of access to cyberspace.
AUTHORS
Directorate Information Warfare South African National Defence Force, Pretoria, South Africa and University of Venda
South Africa
Lieutenant Colonel Michael (Mike) J. Aschmann has been in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) since 1992 and is currently responsible for the Interoperability Development Capability within SANDF. He has a sound experience in operational deployments both internally and externally in Africa, with a wide knowledge in Information and Communication Technology research in the cyber environment.
Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria,
South Africa
Professor Joey Jansen van Vuuren (PhD) is a NRF-rated researcher in the faculty of ICT at Tshwane University of Technology. She is also the Vice Chair of the international IFIP (Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 9.10. She is also a coordinator of SA for the BRICS Integrated Thematic Group Computer Science and Information Security (ITG-CSIS). Her research focuses on cybersecurity, education, government, policy, and culture. She was the coordinator of the South African CybersecurityCentre of Innovation for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which initiated several cybersecurity government initiatives in South Africa. The centre also focused on the promotion of research collaboration, cybersecurity education, and the exchange of cyber threats. She was also involved in the development of cybercrime strategies for the South African Police Services. Previously as the Research Group Leader for Cyber Defence at CSIR, she gave the strategic research direction for the research conducted for the South African National Defence Force and Government sectors on cyber defence. She has spent over 25 years in academia and research and has published various journal papers, conference papers, and book chapters on cybersecurity governance. She has presented on numerous forums, such as national conferences and also international conferences, some of which she has been invited to as the keynote speaker. She is also very passionate about the development of people outside the university and is involved in the offering of training in the TVET and other education sectors.
University of Western Cape and CAIR
Cape Town, South Africa
Louise Leenen is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. Louise completed her PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Her research focus areas are AI applications in cybersecurity, and problem formulation and modelling. She joined UWC in 2019 after working as a Principal Researcher at the CSIR in the Cyber Defence Research Group. Leenen is a member of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAIR) and leads the research group on AI and Cybersecurity. She regularly serves in various positions on committees of national and international bodies, such as the NRF, BRICS, and IFIP. She has authored or co-authored several journal publications, book chapters, and conference papers.
Published In
Journal of Information Warfare
The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.
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